Today, the passive value of tolerance means little more than “I will overlook your sins if you overlook mine.” Just so, egalitarianism and multiculturalism do not lead to the affirmation of all that is unique and glorious in masculinity or femininity or in the various cultures of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, but rather to the collapsing of all distinctions in favor of a Marxist identity politics that reduces people to their race, class, or sex, without imbuing them with any kind of essential worth. Worse yet, swapping out traditional virtues with progressive values has helped create a generation of young people who say to themselves, “Well, yes, I may be living a sinful lifestyle, but that is OK because I recycle cans.” Rather than train up young people to live in accordance with a set standard of virtue, our values-driven schools have taught students to justify their own sinful behavior by commending themselves for the great tolerance and inclusivism they extend toward others who have likewise given in to their base, misdirected passions. Two full generations have been instructed to feel intense concern for the destruction of the environment and for social justice issues on the other side of the globe, while feeling no compunction about indulging their appetites, humiliating their peers, and treating their parents with contempt. In the moral-ethical haze that sets in when values take the place of virtues, it becomes all too easy to redefine narcissism as self-esteem, envy as fairness, and consumerism as a natural and inalienable right. . . . The best way to expose the smallness, meanness, and ultimate ineffectiveness of the pseudo-virtues is to build up in young people a passionate love for the real virtues. Let them come to know, experience, and love transcendent, time-tested, traditional virtues, and the pseudo-virtues will lose their charm and appeal.
Louis Markos
